(The following article by Judy Rife was posted on the Times Herald-Record on November 8.)
HARRIMAN, N.Y. — So what stopped a brand new $5.3 million locomotive in its tracks yesterday? Snarled the morning rush? Got hundreds of commuters to work up to two hours late?
A deer. That’s right, folks. A solitary whitetail.
Bambi’s big score came at 7 a.m., a short distance west of the Harriman station. The impact damaged the locomotive’s electrical system, specifically, the cables that run underneath the engine. And the journey to work went downhill from there.
“The train (the 5:54 from Port Jervis) never got into Hoboken until about 10:30,” said Jennifer Gordon, who boarded in Middletown. “Some people, like myself, got to work at 11. Totally unacceptable. Engineers could not get the motors running, and the train behind us that was supposed to push us in also broke down. What a mess this morning.”
Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, doesn’t disagree. The agency, which operates Metro-North Railroad’s west-of-Hudson service, distributed a written apology to commuters last night.
“It was a difficult morning, a major inconvenience to our customers,” said Stessel.
After the crew was unable to repair damage to the locomotive’s electrical system, NJ Transit decided to couple it to the 6:06 from Port Jervis when it arrived a half-hour later, so it could clear the single track and not block the rest of the morning rush. Other mechanical problems, however, complicated the process.
The disabled locomotive is one of 33 new ones that NJ Transit has put into service this year. Normally, it wouldn’t be on a Metro-North train, but several of Metro-North’s engines are being overhauled, and NJ Transit is covering the shortage of equipment.
The two trains, when they finally got under way, had to move at a regulation 30 miles per hour, which only aggravated the delays. The 5:54 was officially 2 hours and 9 minutes late arriving at Hoboken; the 6:06, 1 hour and 50 minutes late and the 6:54, 15 minutes late.